Planets Aligned
by Selema.C
Summary: After season 3 she's back. This time as an FBI agent and keen on forgetting her past. But she's brought back to Neptune for a case. One of her old friends is a suspect. Will she be able to clear his name? Old feelings and a flame rise will rise. OC LoVe
1. Chapter 1

**Title: **Planets Aligned

**Full Summary: **Veronica Mars is back after finishing her education at Hearst. This time she has an official Title: FBI agent. But she's brought to a case in her home town Neptune and an old friend is a suspect. Will she clear his name? Will her old memories come back to haunt her? Old feelings and a flame emerge...

**Spoilers: **Taken place after the end after season 3

**A/N: **All written within an hour! Was slightly bored and just watched an episode of VM againa and missed it so much... I'm not sure if this is a one-shot or not. It's up to you to decide

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Veronica Mars. I just own the other characters.

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The life of an FBI agent is hard. Dealing with murders was the most difficult. It isn't for me though. Me, Veronica Mars. I was the one who helped solve my best friend, Lilly Kane's murder after everyone else had given up on the case and arrested the suspect who had confessed. I was the only one who knew they had put the wrong man behind bars, and after convincing my father – a private investigator – we were successful in putting the real criminafl behind bars.

Then it was the next murder, but this time it was a mass of murders. A simple class trip to a baseball stadium ended with half a dozen dead when the school bus went off a cliff. The 'O9ers' weren't on the bus, having rented a limo to take them home due to the smell. I had been on the bus too. I was lucky enough to be alive thankful for the appearance of my dead best friend at the rest stop. I was too late to get back onto the bus, so instead I hitched a ride with my friend Weevil.

The police were wrong again. They blamed the once-attempted-to-kill-himself driver. Nope, not him. It was an explosion that killed them. Created by Cassidy Casablanca. He was a sick boy. Mentally. Through all the ridicule by his brother and father over the years had driven him to be an angry boy. He even raped me. I still shudder at the memory. I blamed him for everything, mostly the fact that he almost killed me. I would never admit it to anyone but… I'm glad he's gone. Committed suicide. But then I remind myself that he needed help and we weren't early enough to actually give it to him.

Not forgetting the solving of the rapes going round at university. I had almost been a victim. It was bad enough raping them, but then giving the girls a reminder of it by shaving their heads? Just wrong… this person was behind bars. Stopped finally.

Maybe it was because of all the past crimes I'd seen that had made me immune to puking at the sight of a gruesome murder. Maybe it was like Joseph had said, I was now heartless. I had been out of contact with my old friends for a long time; I only kept contact with Mac and Wallace. Only brief chats we had though.

Mac worked for the Kane's. I guess I should have been upset, but it was her decision. It was a very high-class job and gave her a title. More impressive than she could have ever imagined. She still lived in Neptune so I visited rarely. I was glad to be out of that horrible town where my worst nightmares still lye.

Wallace had achieved his dream: he was a mechanical engineer. He worked somewhere close to the Neptune border, so again we didn't see each other much.

A lot had changed in those five years. I was working at the FBI which was a supposedly better than the CIA. Only 26, going on 27, and one of the top agents in my field. My work consisted on travelling a lot. That was something I had always dreamed of, travelling. Somewhere distant from Neptune.

Travelling wasn't really how I imagined it. I didn't see the sights unless they were scenes of crime.

I visited my father occasionally. He was Mayor of Neptune again, making it better than when it once was under Sheriff Lamb's control… but I shouldn't speak ill of the dead. He and Ms Fennel, Wallace's mother, were still together. Last I visited they had moved in together. Good thing too, my father would have gotten lonely without me living under his roof. We saw each other once over the summer, at his birthday, and at Christmas.

I didn't like to visit Neptune more often than 5 times a year. The other two times went to visiting Mac. Sometimes she was sent on business to New York, where I lived, and we would see each other. She was still the same old shy Mac. Wallace was the same too. Me? I'm not so sure…

I was brought back to Neptune once more on the 5th of April. When I was first told about it I had been speechless. A few years ago a bomb set on the school bus had murdered 7 students. The FBI hadn't gotten involved then. Why now? What crime?

Jeffrey Stone, a handsome black-haired basketball player at the age of 32 had been in Neptune on the 31st of March talking to the Jake Kane on 'business'. At 1:09am he had been found murdered in a ditch. The words 'April Fools' had been written on his forehead.

"Ouch, Neptune," my 'partner in crime' Joseph chuckled to me. "Do you think you'll be able to go back?"

"If it means questioning Jake Kane then I'm in," I smirked at the thought.

Joseph Keen was an odd man. You might have said he was handsome, with his heart-shaped face and curly brown hair and dimples. Only a year older than me yet he seemed like a child. Why did I have to be partnered with him?? That was what I first thought. It turned out he had more insight in the criminals than I had thought. Those 5 years working together had been interesting. But the time was almost up, after solving this case we would have to change partners. I was being transferred to Washington in the summer.

When we arrived in Neptune, our first stop was to questioning Jake Kane. How long had I yearned for this? Too long it seemed. We had full access to the local police's questioning room. The officers sneered at us, so young yet working higher jobs than them. Hah! Some of these officers were the same ones who had ridiculed my investigating skills when I had once lived here. Revenge is sweet.

Jake Kane's eyes were wide with shock and fear when I walked into the interrogation room. I had begged Joseph to let me take this one whilst he sat behind the glass, analysing the suspect's every move.

"V-veronica?" Jake spluttered in shock.

"Nice to see you again Mr Kane," I smiled at him, taking a seat opposite. "Too bad it's under such circumstances."

His eyes adjusted to the sight of me and calmed down. "I see you've done wonders for yourself Veronica. Working for the F.B.I."

"Well I'm very ambitious," Veronica told him before dropping the 'nice' act. "I'm guessing you know why you're here?"

"Someone murdered Jeffrey Stone."

"Why were you meeting with him?"

"I believe I've told the officers before. We were meeting on business."

"Which was…?"

"I don't see how that is important."

"Fine, I'll start with an easier question; when was the meeting?"

It seemed Jake Kane could only answer in only one sentence. He gave short answers like 'angry' or 'three'. It didn't give me any insight on what he was feeling. He'd probably grown accustom to answering like this, who knew what crimes he had committed.

We didn't have evidence to charge him, so he had to be let go. I promised myself that one day, I would give Jake Kane a taste of his own medicine.

It was an end to that day then. We were still unsure what our next move was.

I was back at the station the next day early like Joseph. We began looking into the victim.

He had been spotted at a strip club only hours before the murder. Our first stop was there.

"Suicide?" Joseph asked me whilst I drove.

"What makes you think that?" I raised an eyebrow.

"He never went to college, dropped out of high school. Basketball was all he had. Little known fact, his career was nearly over. He had nothing else to live for."

"So he spends his last hours at a strip club? Seeing some hot stuff for the last time? I thought you were good at this, Joseph," I shook my head. "What about the words? 'April Fools'? You're forgetting the simple fact that he wouldn't have been able to write that on himself without a mirror."

Someone had written the words clearly, a right-handed person, in italic script. Not something you can write on yourself, backwards.

I didn't expect strip joints to be this crowded in the morning. The room stank of cheap perfume and musky cologne. Most of the men were middle-aged. Probably all just skipping their low paid jobs or getting away from their wives. I've seen it all before in cases.

They all eyed me with a strange alluring look. I may be blonde but I don't strip! Idiots. I looked over at my partner who was chuckling slightly. "What?"

"Does this remind you of your first case?"

I groaned at the memory. My first case at the FBI involved me dancing on a pole. Not how I actually wanted to start my career or meet my colleagues.

We made our way over to one brunette stripper with heavy glittered eye shadow around her face that had just finished giving one gentleman a lap dance.

"Have you seen this man? Goes by the name of Jeffrey?" I asked her, holding up a picture of Jeffrey.

"Who's to know?" she asked rudely. Apparently in Strip Class 101 they don't teach manners.

"FBI," Joseph showed her his badge.

"Yeah, I saw him. He was here around 11pm, left at 12:30am," she grunted. "Well I wouldn't say leave… more like was kicked out."

"Why?"

"Dunno," she shrugged. "Ask Jenny." She gestured over at one of the other girls. She had long black hair and a heart-shaped face with an obvious eyelift.

"Yeah?"

"These agents are asking about Jeffrey." I gave her the picture of him. Let's hope Jenny would be more helpful.

"What' do'ya need to know?" Jenny pulled a face. Unpleasant memory…?

"Did you see him leave?"

"Yeah, around half twelve."

"Did he have any writing on his face?" Joseph interjected before I could speak. Again with the suicide theory. He always did this with a case getting too difficult. Eventually I would prove him wrong.

"Yeah," Jenny said surprised. "He was here at twelve, April Fools day. We wrote that on all the customers' head."

Joseph smiled smugly at me. So this proved the writing on Jeffrey's head. Now, the ditch he was found in was only a 20-minute walk from here, meaning he was killed approximately around… 12:50am?

"They say he was kicked out?" Joseph continued.

"He got into a fight with a blond dude."

"Can you describe him?" I asked.

"He's right over there," Jenny pointed to the bar where a blond sat drinking a shot. Looks like we just found ourselves another suspect.

As I took a closer look, my jaw dropped in horror.

"Dick Casablanca?"

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**Continue or not, it's up to you. Review...**


	2. Chapter 2

**Title: **Planets Aligned

**Full Summary: **Veronica Mars is back after finishing her education at Hearst. This time she has an official Title: FBI agent. But she's brought to a case in her home town Neptune and an old friend is a suspect. Will she clear his name? Will her old memories come back to haunt her? Old feelings and a flame emerge...

**Spoilers: **Taken place after the end after season 3

**A/N: **Wow! Four reviews telling me to continue and even more people adding to alerts. Means a lot 3 so heres chapter two! I'm going to try and make all the chapters around this long. This story will have some LoVe eventually.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Veronica Mars. I just own the other characters.

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The blond grunted and turned to the sound of his name being called. I got a full view of his face. It was the same chiselled blue-eyed face I had grown accustom to seeing through High School to University.

Dick Casablanca.

Before I knew it Joseph had already wrapped his steel-tight handcuffs around him. "I am arresting you on the suspicion of the murder of Jeffrey Stone. Anything you say will be recorded and held against you."

"I never did anything!" Dick protested. He stared longingly at his drink that was now out of grasp; he tried to shuffle away from Joseph.

Dick glared at Joseph; then he caught sight of me. His blue eyes pierced through my skin; they were the same colour as one misguided boy who had stared at me for one last time before jumping to his death.

I stood a few feet away, shuffling my feet nervously. I could smell the alcohol on his breath.

"Veronica? Since when did you work at a strip club?"

I rolled my eyes, relaxing now. The same old Dick. 10 in the morning and drunk already. He looked the same too; his hair was still flopping, falling over his eyes. He wasn't wearing a t-shirt and shorts I had seen him wearing a hundred times; this time it was a button-up shirt and slacks. "I work at the FBI, Dick," I told him showing my badge. "We have a witness saying you got into a fight with Jeffrey Stoner on the 1st of April."

"You know me Veronica! I wouldn't kill someone!" he shouted in rage.

"Anything you say will be recorded and held against you," I repeated meekly, making my way outside to the car.

_Did_ I really know him? The Dick I knew in High School had been stupid and naive, how could he pull off a murder? I would have never thought of Dick murdering someone, but I never thought of Cassidy as a murderer either and look how that ended. How could I be sure what was this new Dick capable of? After all, I knew him before. I knew the stupid pranks he committed like burning the community pool. Then there were the more serious allegations, like slipping in GHB into his girlfriend's drink…

He complained all the way to the station. Moaning for the first ten minutes. Joseph drowned the sound of his voice by turning the radio on. I forgot about Dick being a pain in the ass; then he started singing along to the radio. Loudly and badly.

I sighed in relief when we got to the police station. 20 minutes with Dick was all I could take. He was one of the reasons I moved from this godforsaken town.

"What?" I whispered in shock. Dick was now sitting in the interrogation room alone. Still singing to himself. Joseph wanted me to go in and question him. "Why can't you go?"

"You know him. You know what gets to him."

"So? How will that help?"

"This guy is high up on the status quo. He won't answer to anyone below him. But you knew him, you know his secrets. Take advantage of that. We don't have much time until his lawyer gets here so make it quick."

I sighed and entered the room. Dick looked up and smiled his pearly white teeth at me. Still spending $500 on teeth whitening, how much is the heir of the Casablanca fortune getting paid?

"What a pleasant surprise," he grinned. "After 5 years."

"So long, right?" I said sarcastically. "So you're working for your father now?"

"Someone's got to help him do… whatever he does. It's a very rewarding job."

"So what was a guy like _you_ doing in a low-paid strip club on the 31st of March?"

"By 'guy like me' do you mean a handsome charming man that can get any girl he wants?"

"No, I meant a spoiled heir with $100 notes in is wallet."

"Going through my stuff already? You seem like a needy girlfriend," he suddenly smirked. "Speaking of girlfriend, have you spoken to Logan lately?"

I glared at him. Bringing up my ex-boyfriend was a low jab, even for him. I had dumped Logan before the end of our first year of University. I was told we had an 'off again, on again' relationship, most people expecting us to be on again soon. It didn't happen, we both moved on. I went with Piz and he went with Parker. I would see Logan on campus and we would occasionally exchange greetings. It wasn't that awkward, just like saying hello to an old friend you didn't talk to that much. But then we had had that last kiss at the graduation party…

"I've been travelling a lot," I shrugged. "Let's cut to the chase, you were at the Neptune Strip Club on the 31st of March. True?"

"True."

"You were there until 12:40am. True?"

"Give or take," he shrugged. "It was quite blurry."

"Your front door man said you were back at your hotel room by 2:25am. Now I haven't been around that part of Neptune for years but I'm pretty sure it only takes 30 minutes by car back to your hotel. Mind telling me why it took you an hour and 45 minutes to get back?"

"I didn't have my car with me. I must've walked," he shrugged again. It's hard to question someone who doesn't remember. But sometimes it's easy too.

"You say you walked. The doorman saw you get out of a taxi."

He was speechless. I had caught him out. "I want my lawyer."

It wasn't going any further than that so I left. Joseph was waiting for me. "Well?"

"He's got no alibi. But he does have a hell of a damn good lawyer," he told me. "We can't question him without a lawyer present and his lawyer is 'very busy'. The earliest meeting we can get is in 2 days."

"I guess that will have to do," I sighed.

"That gives us time to look at some new information." I followed him to the fax machine; I forgot the police station could even afford one. Three pages were currently being faxed to us from the director.

I flicked through the pages, reading every single word, Joseph reading over my shoulder. This case was slightly hard as there had been no murder weapon, just the old fashioned way: using fists. Stoner's head had been cracked open by a hard surface, presumably the cement floor. He didn't fall for sure, or he would've landed on his nose. If he had fainted from the alcohol then the crack wouldn't have been so severe. His head was cracked by force, it had to be murder. Someone had gotten his head and shoved it into the ground.

"No suicide," I told Joseph sternly. He scowled, but I was right. Aren't I always?

"Someone strong," Joseph nodded. "He gave Stoner a bloody nose and some pretty bad bruises too."

"You think it was Dick?"

"I don't know what to think right now. We need to wait for more results. Director John says the lab is currently researching the murderer's height and weight."

"The technology of 2010." Especially made for solving crimes? Then why did I keep getting advertisements for porn?

It was a dead end for now. The only thing we could do then was to get full statements for the case. This meant back to the dingy strip club.

*****

Smelling of cheap peach perfume, I finally retired back to my hotel room after that long day. Dad had offered me a room in the Fennel House but I refused. It would have been to weird staying with him and his _girlfriend. _Some how though, he had roped me into having dinner with them.

The apple didn't fall far from the tree, my dad used to work as a PI solving simple crimes like missing peoples and vandalism. Now as Mayor and part of the police crew once again, he had worked himself up to solving robberies and murders. If asked for advice he would have given it, but I was working alone now, I didn't want my daddy's help. Plus, it wasn't nice to talk murder over dinner.

"You seriously telling me you think Dick is a murderer?" Wallace said in awe. We were talking on the phone when I had gotten back to my room. We were still best friends and told each other everything important, like how Dick was now a suspect in my case.

"I don't think that, but it's precautionary to question him," I told him.

"But you think he's capable of murder?"

"Well…"

"People must have changed a lot over the years. Did you know that Jackie's now acting in her first movie?"

"You're still in touch with Jackie?" I groaned. Wallace and Jackie had been dating for a while in High School. It's not that I didn't like her it was just… she was a spoiled brat, daughter of a famous baseball player. Not forgetting the fact that she crushed Wallace's heart. She might have changed, but can you really forgive and forget the past like that?

"We're just talking. That's all," he reassured me.

I heard a knock on my door. I heaved myself off the bed, tired, and crossed the large bedroom. The government must be forking a lot for the FBI, considering my hotel room was the size of the Kane's dinning room. "Hang on a minute, Wallace. I think the Pizza guy is here."

"Didn't you just have dinner with the folks?" Yeah, we called our parents 'the folks' as we were nearly stepbrother and stepsister. Like every girl's dream to be related to your best friend, so you could share a room and stay up all night. Wasn't going to work for us since we both lived on our own.

"My dad cooked," I told him, cringing. Burnt meatloaf, yum.

"Oh," Wallace said knowingly. I opened the mahogany door to see… it wasn't the pizza boy.

Stood in his place was a tall lean brunette with deep brown eyes. Another familiar face I had seen before on the last day of University, as with Dick. Just staring up at him, the memories came flashing back. Memories I was keen on forgetting.

"I'll have to call you back Wallace," I muttered into the phone that I realized was still in my hand. I slid the cell phone shut.

"Hello Ronnie," he smiled at me. "I heard you were back in town."

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**Ah, cliffie? Let's hope so. For all those LoVe fans you'll know how it is.**

**Review please with your thoughts on the chapter!**


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